Helping your child revise Mrs martin

We ask that you support your child at home. Welcome The purpose of this session is to inform you of what tutors and teachers are doing to help prepare your child for their exams. We ask that you support your child at home.

How does your memory work? Answer the questions on the sheet. When you’re done, turn the sheet back over. Now, everyone has 45 seconds to write down as many of the words they can remember from the middle column.

Visual Acoustic Semantic Your results Count up how many of these words you remembered… Trousers, BUTTON, BOTTLE, FOOTBALL, COMPUTER, sink, TAXI, plug, bike, gun COOK, desk, chair, CLOCK, FOG, MOUSE, tights, car, STORK, cap Lemur, orange, Peru, chicken, Birmingham, chainsaw, OAK, BLUE, LIBRARY, EVEREST Visual Acoustic Semantic

results Visual - On the whole, not many people remember many of the visual words (average 2 or 3). This is because our brain only processes them by the way they look and we do not remember them. Acoustic - The acoustic words are processed by the way they sound so we are more likely to remember these (average 4). Semantic – This means ‘by meaning’ so semantic words are processed by what we know about them. We are more likely to remember these words as our brain processes them more deeply and so they stay in our long-term memory (average 5 or 6).

Application to revision Simply reading book/notes or copying out information does not work as information is being processed visually. The best ways to revise is to transform the information so the brain reorganises it by meaning. This way the information is being processed semantically. The best way to do this is by using flash cards, past exam questions and testing/answering questions (flash cards is a good way to do this.)

How does your child revise? Revision techniques

The Flash Card – distilling your learning Because a flash card is small, you need to boil down your learning to a key, easily-revised summary. “Chunk” the learning down. Each flashcard should be on one key idea or concept. The key information only should be summarised on one side. Use diagrams, bullet points etc. On the back, put key words and possible exam questions on this concept. Your notes Your flashcard Revision

The flash card

Past exam papers and mark schemes Ensure students know which exam board they will be sitting, as well as which paper. Foundation/Higher/Modular For some subjects, completing past papers is the best way to revise. Students shouldn’t time themselves completing a paper until closer to the final exam– ensure they can answer the questions correctly in their own time first. If they are struggling with certain questions/topics, tell them to bring the paper in and speak to their teacher.

Revision timetable

Subject-specific revision sessions. After school club (Wednesdays). Additional support Subject-specific revision sessions. After school club (Wednesdays). Tutor time sessions. Support-guidance to prepare for next year. Fortnightly newsletter.

Thank you Mrs martin